1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a system and method for tracking and synchronizing related data elements in disparate storage systems. More particularly, the present invention provides a system and method for dynamically tracking and synchronizing related data elements stored in disparate storage systems of an enterprise system.
2. Background Art
The efficient and consistent storage of data is a necessary component of successful business. It is common for companies to have large enterprise systems having many storage systems with data replicated there between. Accordingly, when data must be treated (created, moved, modified or deleted) or referenced in one system it is necessary for the data to be similarly treated or referenced in other systems. For example, an insurance company may maintain the name and addresses of its customers in an customer storage system as well as in billing and claims storage systems. As data is created, modified or deleted in the customer storage system, the same changes often have to be propagated in the billing and claims storage systems so the data and storage systems are xe2x80x9csynchronized.xe2x80x9d
Heretofore, several techniques have been implemented to help solve this problem. One example is known as a xe2x80x9cpublish and subscribexe2x80x9d mechanism in which one storage system will treat a data element and then instruct other storage systems about the treatment. However, under the xe2x80x9cpublish and subscribexe2x80x9d mechanism, upon receiving an instruction to treat a data element, the receiving storage system must still locate the data element within its own system. For example, if the claims storage system receives an instruction to modify a particular customer""s address, the claims storage system must first determine the location of the particular customer""s address within the claims database. Without system-specific identifiers, it may be impossible to locate the storage location of the particular data element. Hence, an additional technique is required to map between system identifiers of the various storage systems.
Another technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,061, to Gupta et al., which teaches a collaboration system for defining interaction between applications. The system of Gupta et al. requires that a connector communicate with each application to serve as an intermediary between the application and the collaboration system. However, each connector must store mapping information for its corresponding application, thus, fragmenting the storage of the mapping information among the multiple locations (connectors). By distributing the mapping function to each connector, more burden is placed upon the builder of the connector, and the ability to reuse mapping code (across multiple collaborations) is diminished. Additionally, storing this information in each connector requires that each connector be stateful (have persistent storage associated with it). This also complicates the building and maintenance of connectors. Additionally, the approach of Gupta et al. requires a two step mapping process, first mapping the identifiers from the sending application to the collaboration and then mapping the identifiers from the collaboration to the receiving application. This is less efficient than directly mapping sending application identifiers to receiving application identifiers. Additionally, the system of Gupta et. al. requires that all communication between applications be reformatted by the connectors into the format of the collaboration system. This can be redundant and inefficient if the systems to be integrated and synchronized already make use of a standard protocol and the only translation needed is to map application identifiers from one application to another.
Still other systems have used a cross-reference facility whereby each data element is associated with a record identifier for each system in which the data element is stored. Thus, when a change is made at one system, the system will inform the other systems of the change. However, this requires that all systems maintain a table or the like indicating where the data element is stored on all other systems. Moreover, complications can arise when there is not a one-to-one correspondence between records in each system. For example, a customer""s contact information may be stored in one record in the claims storage system, but in three records in the billing storage system. Thus, the amount of information that each storage system must maintain is increased.
In view of the above, there exists a need for a system and method for dynamically tracking/synchronizing related data elements in disparate storage systems. Moreover, there exists a need for such a system and method that does not require each storage system to maintain high volumes of storage information for the other systems. In addition, there exists a need for such a system and method that does not require re-formatting of communication between storage systems. There also exists a need to provide these functions as a re-usable centralized service that is efficient and avoids multiple translations between identifiers.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with existing systems by providing a system and method for dynamically tracking/synchronizing related data elements between disparate storage systems. More particularly, the present invention provides a hub system that maintains storage information for each storage system of an enterprise system so that treatment of data in one storage system can be efficiently synchronized the other storage systems.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a system having a table of keys for synchronizing related data elements between a first and second storage system is provided. Each key comprises: (1) a universal identifier corresponding to a data element in the first and second storage system; (2) a first record identifier corresponding to the data element in the first storage system; and (3) a second record identifier corresponding to the data element stored in the second storage system.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a system for synchronizing related data elements between a first and second storage system is provided. The system comprises: (1) a header reading system for receiving an instruction the first storage system, wherein the instruction has a first header that includes a first identifier; (2) a table interface for accessing a table to identify a second identifier based on the first identifier; (3) a header generation system for generating a second header corresponding to the second storage system; and (4) an instruction passing system for passing the instruction and the second header to the second storage system.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a method for synchronizing related data elements between a first and second storage system is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (1) receiving an instruction having a first header from the first storage system, wherein the first header includes a first identifier; (2) identifying the second storage system; (3) accessing a table to cross-reference the first identifier with a second identifier; (4) generating a second header that corresponds to the second storage system and attaching the second header to the instruction; and (5) sending the instruction to the second storage system.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a program product stored on a recordable media for synchronizing related data elements between a first and second storage system is provided. The program product comprises: (1) a header reading system for receiving an instruction from the first storage system, wherein the instruction includes a first header that has a first identifier; (2) a table interface for accessing a table to identify a second identifier based on the first identifier; (3) a header generation system for generating a second header corresponding to the second storage system; and (4) an instruction passing system for passing the instruction and the second header to the second storage system.
It is therefore an advantage of the present invention to provide a system and method for synchronization of related data elements between disparate storage systems by automatically mapping system-specific identifiers without intervention by the storage systems themselves. It is a further advantage of the present invention to provide a hub system that maintains information for all data elements in the storage systems so that treatment of a data element in one storage system can be efficiently synchronized with the other storage systems. It is still a further advantage of the present invention to provide a system and method for mapping system-specific identifiers without needing to read or understand the instruction itself, whereby communication between storage systems need not be re-formatted.